That's all well and good until they retroactively extend patent protections to, say, 50% of the length of copyright terms. (I'm still trying to divide infinity by 2 to find out precisely how long that would be.)
These people are allowing their journalistic principles (as if they had any) be corrupted by the business interests of their corporate masters. Sure, this is nothing new. But I should would love to see this story spread wide enough so that 95% of the people in the US know about it.
Well, I'm not so sure that yet-another-non-event in Aruba gets more coverage than RIAA/MPAA legal action because of any other reason than it has got a larger audience. The general public would rather know about a cute blonde than some legalese they don't understand. It's all about ratings. And that's a difficult argument.
You could say that it's the news' responsibility to prominantly promote issues which could adversely affect the viewing audience, but it's the chicken-egg phenomenon. Does a news service with a large audience have a responsibility to discuss unpopular issues, or does such a service have a large audience precisely because they only cover popular issues. The live, real-life coverage of Congress on C-SPAN, for example, is probably the least viewed cable channel of all time.
You're correct about cursor behavior, but I just did an experiment in selecting text in the address bars of 3 browsers. Here are the results:
Internet Explorer 6.0: Click 1) Mouse cursor is an arrow. Highlights entire URL. Long URL is scrolled to the end. Mouse movement has no effect. Release. Click 2) Mouse cursor is an I. Places text cursor. Mouse movement highlights text in either direction. Vertical position has no effect. Release button.
Firefox 1.0.7: Click 1) Mouse cursor is an I. Movement selects text. Release without moving highlights entire URL. Long URL is not scrolled to the end. Click 2) Mouse cursor is an I. Click and move attempts to drag highlighted URL. Pause while button depressed selects "word" (word is defined as alphanumeric text surrounded by non-alphanumerics). Movement after pause selects word+text in direction moved. Release button without pause places text cursor at expected location. Click 3) Mouse cursor is an I. Click and move highlights text as expected. Inadvertant vertical movement beyond the toolbars may deselect the address bar text and may highlight text on the page instead. Deselecting highlighted page text is an excercise left to the reader.
Opera 8.5: Behaves the same as IE, with the exception that the cursor is always an I.
I guess it could be faster to select text in Firefox if you click and move the mouse on the first click, but mirroring expected behavior has its advantages, especially when you're trying to get people to convert.
I always have problems with text selection as well, especially in the address bar, but also in the search box and various text boxes. If I want to cut off the end of a url, like http://slashdot.org/blahblah/dothis.php?stupidis=s tupiddoes to just http://slashdot.org/ in most browsers I just click after the.org and move to the right and it'll scroll to the end.
In Firefox (if I remember right; I'm using Opera ATM) I have to click (highlights all), then click again to get a cursor, but if the URL is too long it automatically scrolled to the end, so I have to hit Home, then reposition the cursor, and sometimes it won't scroll to the end (just highlight the visible section).. it's just a PITA.
Agreed. I just wish it wasn't such a resource hog. I can leave Opera or IE open in the background while I'm playing a game, but I take a serious performance hit if Firefox is running. Actually, that's true almost any time I see a performance slowdown, even if it's just in other applications. My first remedy is always to close Firefox (accompanied by a vocal "Arghh!" for good measure).
where A is the keyspace, B is keys per second, and C is the answer in days. I'd assume the average time would be half that if the keys follow a normal distribution.
Of course B is dependant on the computer(s) used, and A is dependant on whomever encrypted the data. Since B is classified, and A is unknown, you can just pick an arbitrary value for C.
The naming (numbering) of AMD processors is, at best, loosely tied to performance.
Not that it's unique to AMD.. the value version of almost any video card, while carrying a higher model and often price tag than it's full-blown predecessor, is usually lower in performance.
Buying a used car is buying someone else's problem. If you want a real value, buy last year's model when the showrooms are trying desperately to get rid of their old inventory.. late December or so. They'll often give it to you at or below cost, and you have all the peace of mind of a warranty on a brand new car without worrying about the driving or maintanance habits of a previous owner.
Of course if you don't care at all about the quality of the vehicle, then yeah, a $500 Festiva is definately the way to go. Personally, I've had enough problems with both new and used cars that I'll never buy a used car again.
Well you see, in the US there's supposed to be the concept that government is a necessary evil, and its powers should be limited to only those which are absolutely required of it. The liberties of the governed, on the other hand, should only be limited when absolutely necessary.
Of course, lots of people have lots of different opinions on what's absolutely required of the government, and what everyone else absolutely shouldn't be allowed to do.
You obviously missed the fact that he was karma whoring by repeating the same Franklin quote that shows up in every/. discussion ever, regardless of the topic.
Bird Migration Patterns Affected by Microsoft
Comments: They that give up... (Score:5, Rallycry) by SlashDork (0)
They that give up essential freedoms to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety! WOOHOO!!
Well in Anime, there's the doe eyes, the circle mouths, the economy of frames (two cells are apparently all you need to animate ANYTHING), the lack of individual style between titles (i.e., they all look like they were drawn by the same artist) and the terrible voice acting that gives it away.
In Manga, I guess you'd basically look for the same things minus the voice acting. (Unless you do your own voice acting.)
Research is being removed with clippers and/or scissors because of patents? Hopefully they do away with patents so we can go back to removing research by hand.
Sounds kind of like having an acid that can eat through anything. How do you can you keep it in a container if it can eat through anything?
By separating it into 2 or more inert components and storing them seperately. How is that at all like tamper-resistant code?
It's not impossible to create code that is very difficult to alter in a desirable manner, unless that desire is to have it cease functioning. The current StarForce copy protection achieves this by encrypting the executable and libraries of the program in question, and then running them on its own virtual machine which runs at the driver level. It sounds like Apple is planning to do exactly the same thing, unless I'm misinterpreting their patent. Each of their points says:
"a machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising: installing a first object code program, wherein the installing includes, statically translating the first object code program into a second object code program that is executable on a machine, wherein the statically translating includes, determining an identifier based on a state of the machine or a user attribute; and obfuscating the first object code program or the second object code program, wherein the obfuscating depends on the identifier; and storing the second object code program for execution by the machine."
But that's just how I'm reading it.. I could be wrong. At any rate, StarForce has yet to be cracked directly, but since its main purpose is to prevent copying, other weaknesses have been exploited; mainly in the area of virtual drives. Evidently it tries to identify the drives on a system, and if it successfully IDs one, it will require the disc to be placed in that drive. To ensure forward compatibility, if it cannot identify any of the drives, it will accept any drive that the disc appears to be in. It still attempts to blacklist virtual devices though, so the virtual drive software must be obfuscated. As I said, the only successful means of defeating the protection thus far have been to alter the data external to the program; the executables and DLLs themselves have not been successfully cracked, except when the publisher opted not to use encryption.
Not to nitpick, but eyes are hardly a defect; they're one of the most amazing mechanisms in nature. That they receive images "upside-down" is a function of their incredible ability to focus light through a lense. That's just a principle of optics. There are a great many imperfect eyes, but the basic mechanics of optics are no more a flaw than any other aspect of physics.
Signs, dear Cancer, point to astrology predictions being phrased imprecisely. As the planets align, future prospects will become more clear, perhaps in business or personal aspects. Now may be the time to tell that secret you've been keeping, or to take that trip. Go ahead, you deserve it!
Well, not that I'm with the ID crowd, but your FUD is just as bad. You imply that people are incapable of individual thought just because they're told something. Personally, both of my parents are religious, one very much so, but they were unable to answer any of my questions on religion to my satisfaction, and thus I'm athiest/agnostic (undecided, but don't think it's worth my time to decide since the result would be the same either way). Growing up, I attended both public school and private religious schools. In fact, I feel that the education I received from the private school was far superior, despite the fact that my public school was one of the top ranked in the country.
I have no problem with religion being taught in public school, if it's done in the proper format -- that is, a Religion class. I think ignoring a major influence on, and value system of, billions of people is folley. Of course I don't think it belongs in the science classroom, but I certainly don't think it's going to be the end of the world. I also don't think that it will be an impetus for furthering religion, rather I think it's merely indicitave of the existing culture. We are not (supposed to be) a centralized nation, and if one state or region has strong beliefs in what their children should be taught, then that's their perogative (as, in fact, it is, and their decision appears to be Constitutional). I don't agree with it, but I have faith in people, even young people, to draw their own conclusions, and I don't believe those conclusions must be the same as mine.
Re:ah, who cares about geneva conventions.
on
Set PHASRs On Stun
·
· Score: 1
Right.. because phosphorus = napalm. They're exactly the same.
I get the first part -- Personnel Halting -- but "and Stimulation Response" just sounds like someone sucked at reverse acronym forming. "Ok guys, we need two words, any length.. one starts with an S, and one starts with an R. They don't have to make any sense in relation to the object they're supposed to describe, they just need to be words damnit!"
Now I don't claim to be an acronym genius by any means, but, uh... "Personnel Halting and Stunning Rifle," maybe? How f'ing hard is that? And look, it even makes sense. Or you could even make it "Stunning Energy Rifle" and it'd be PHASER.
The designs all look like old WinAmp skins to me: same layout with different color schemes. I'm just surprised there wasn't one design with a chick on it.
I really am French*, and your joke is in poor taste, sir. Just recently we have pledged our unwavering support against Syria, and not just because they wouldn't cut us in on their backdoor oil-for-food sploits. You may have heard about the rioting in our Parisian suburbs recently. What you may not have heard is that if the riots don't stop soon, we are going to ask them to stop! If that's not standing up for ourselves, then I don't know what is.
Slashdot Mirror
That's all well and good until they retroactively extend patent protections to, say, 50% of the length of copyright terms. (I'm still trying to divide infinity by 2 to find out precisely how long that would be.)
Too bad most AU ISPs charge by the GB and/or cutoff high consumption customers.
These people are allowing their journalistic principles (as if they had any) be corrupted by the business interests of their corporate masters. Sure, this is nothing new. But I should would love to see this story spread wide enough so that 95% of the people in the US know about it.
Well, I'm not so sure that yet-another-non-event in Aruba gets more coverage than RIAA/MPAA legal action because of any other reason than it has got a larger audience. The general public would rather know about a cute blonde than some legalese they don't understand. It's all about ratings. And that's a difficult argument.
You could say that it's the news' responsibility to prominantly promote issues which could adversely affect the viewing audience, but it's the chicken-egg phenomenon. Does a news service with a large audience have a responsibility to discuss unpopular issues, or does such a service have a large audience precisely because they only cover popular issues. The live, real-life coverage of Congress on C-SPAN, for example, is probably the least viewed cable channel of all time.
Excessive speed doesn't kill people.. it's the sudden stop.
You're correct about cursor behavior, but I just did an experiment in selecting text in the address bars of 3 browsers. Here are the results:
Internet Explorer 6.0:
Click 1) Mouse cursor is an arrow. Highlights entire URL. Long URL is scrolled to the end. Mouse movement has no effect. Release.
Click 2) Mouse cursor is an I. Places text cursor. Mouse movement highlights text in either direction. Vertical position has no effect. Release button.
Firefox 1.0.7:
Click 1) Mouse cursor is an I. Movement selects text. Release without moving highlights entire URL. Long URL is not scrolled to the end.
Click 2) Mouse cursor is an I. Click and move attempts to drag highlighted URL. Pause while button depressed selects "word" (word is defined as alphanumeric text surrounded by non-alphanumerics). Movement after pause selects word+text in direction moved. Release button without pause places text cursor at expected location.
Click 3) Mouse cursor is an I. Click and move highlights text as expected. Inadvertant vertical movement beyond the toolbars may deselect the address bar text and may highlight text on the page instead. Deselecting highlighted page text is an excercise left to the reader.
Opera 8.5: Behaves the same as IE, with the exception that the cursor is always an I.
I guess it could be faster to select text in Firefox if you click and move the mouse on the first click, but mirroring expected behavior has its advantages, especially when you're trying to get people to convert.
I always have problems with text selection as well, especially in the address bar, but also in the search box and various text boxes. If I want to cut off the end of a url, like http://slashdot.org/blahblah/dothis.php?stupidis=s tupiddoes to just http://slashdot.org/ in most browsers I just click after the .org and move to the right and it'll scroll to the end.
In Firefox (if I remember right; I'm using Opera ATM) I have to click (highlights all), then click again to get a cursor, but if the URL is too long it automatically scrolled to the end, so I have to hit Home, then reposition the cursor, and sometimes it won't scroll to the end (just highlight the visible section).. it's just a PITA.
Agreed. I just wish it wasn't such a resource hog. I can leave Opera or IE open in the background while I'm playing a game, but I take a serious performance hit if Firefox is running. Actually, that's true almost any time I see a performance slowdown, even if it's just in other applications. My first remedy is always to close Firefox (accompanied by a vocal "Arghh!" for good measure).
If terrorists pick passphrases the way the rest of the world does, it's probably a toss up between "password" and "@11@HU @K34R".
Uhh.. off the top of my head, worst case would be
(A / B) x 86400 = C
where A is the keyspace, B is keys per second, and C is the answer in days. I'd assume the average time would be half that if the keys follow a normal distribution.
Of course B is dependant on the computer(s) used, and A is dependant on whomever encrypted the data. Since B is classified, and A is unknown, you can just pick an arbitrary value for C.
The naming (numbering) of AMD processors is, at best, loosely tied to performance.
Not that it's unique to AMD.. the value version of almost any video card, while carrying a higher model and often price tag than it's full-blown predecessor, is usually lower in performance.
Buying a used car is buying someone else's problem. If you want a real value, buy last year's model when the showrooms are trying desperately to get rid of their old inventory.. late December or so. They'll often give it to you at or below cost, and you have all the peace of mind of a warranty on a brand new car without worrying about the driving or maintanance habits of a previous owner.
Of course if you don't care at all about the quality of the vehicle, then yeah, a $500 Festiva is definately the way to go. Personally, I've had enough problems with both new and used cars that I'll never buy a used car again.
Software degrades in value as well. How much would you pay for Lotus123 or WordPerfect 3.0?
Well you see, in the US there's supposed to be the concept that government is a necessary evil, and its powers should be limited to only those which are absolutely required of it. The liberties of the governed, on the other hand, should only be limited when absolutely necessary.
Of course, lots of people have lots of different opinions on what's absolutely required of the government, and what everyone else absolutely shouldn't be allowed to do.
It stands for neoconservative.
You obviously missed the fact that he was karma whoring by repeating the same Franklin quote that shows up in every /. discussion ever, regardless of the topic.
Bird Migration Patterns Affected by Microsoft
Comments:
They that give up... (Score:5, Rallycry)
by SlashDork (0)
They that give up essential freedoms to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety! WOOHOO!!
Well in Anime, there's the doe eyes, the circle mouths, the economy of frames (two cells are apparently all you need to animate ANYTHING), the lack of individual style between titles (i.e., they all look like they were drawn by the same artist) and the terrible voice acting that gives it away.
In Manga, I guess you'd basically look for the same things minus the voice acting. (Unless you do your own voice acting.)
Research is being removed with clippers and/or scissors because of patents? Hopefully they do away with patents so we can go back to removing research by hand.
By separating it into 2 or more inert components and storing them seperately. How is that at all like tamper-resistant code?
It's not impossible to create code that is very difficult to alter in a desirable manner, unless that desire is to have it cease functioning. The current StarForce copy protection achieves this by encrypting the executable and libraries of the program in question, and then running them on its own virtual machine which runs at the driver level. It sounds like Apple is planning to do exactly the same thing, unless I'm misinterpreting their patent. Each of their points says: But that's just how I'm reading it.. I could be wrong. At any rate, StarForce has yet to be cracked directly, but since its main purpose is to prevent copying, other weaknesses have been exploited; mainly in the area of virtual drives. Evidently it tries to identify the drives on a system, and if it successfully IDs one, it will require the disc to be placed in that drive. To ensure forward compatibility, if it cannot identify any of the drives, it will accept any drive that the disc appears to be in. It still attempts to blacklist virtual devices though, so the virtual drive software must be obfuscated. As I said, the only successful means of defeating the protection thus far have been to alter the data external to the program; the executables and DLLs themselves have not been successfully cracked, except when the publisher opted not to use encryption.
Not to nitpick, but eyes are hardly a defect; they're one of the most amazing mechanisms in nature. That they receive images "upside-down" is a function of their incredible ability to focus light through a lense. That's just a principle of optics. There are a great many imperfect eyes, but the basic mechanics of optics are no more a flaw than any other aspect of physics.
Signs, dear Cancer, point to astrology predictions being phrased imprecisely. As the planets align, future prospects will become more clear, perhaps in business or personal aspects. Now may be the time to tell that secret you've been keeping, or to take that trip. Go ahead, you deserve it!
Well, not that I'm with the ID crowd, but your FUD is just as bad. You imply that people are incapable of individual thought just because they're told something. Personally, both of my parents are religious, one very much so, but they were unable to answer any of my questions on religion to my satisfaction, and thus I'm athiest/agnostic (undecided, but don't think it's worth my time to decide since the result would be the same either way). Growing up, I attended both public school and private religious schools. In fact, I feel that the education I received from the private school was far superior, despite the fact that my public school was one of the top ranked in the country.
I have no problem with religion being taught in public school, if it's done in the proper format -- that is, a Religion class. I think ignoring a major influence on, and value system of, billions of people is folley. Of course I don't think it belongs in the science classroom, but I certainly don't think it's going to be the end of the world. I also don't think that it will be an impetus for furthering religion, rather I think it's merely indicitave of the existing culture. We are not (supposed to be) a centralized nation, and if one state or region has strong beliefs in what their children should be taught, then that's their perogative (as, in fact, it is, and their decision appears to be Constitutional). I don't agree with it, but I have faith in people, even young people, to draw their own conclusions, and I don't believe those conclusions must be the same as mine.
Right.. because phosphorus = napalm. They're exactly the same.
I get the first part -- Personnel Halting -- but "and Stimulation Response" just sounds like someone sucked at reverse acronym forming. "Ok guys, we need two words, any length.. one starts with an S, and one starts with an R. They don't have to make any sense in relation to the object they're supposed to describe, they just need to be words damnit!"
Now I don't claim to be an acronym genius by any means, but, uh... "Personnel Halting and Stunning Rifle," maybe? How f'ing hard is that? And look, it even makes sense. Or you could even make it "Stunning Energy Rifle" and it'd be PHASER.
The designs all look like old WinAmp skins to me: same layout with different color schemes. I'm just surprised there wasn't one design with a chick on it.
I really am French*, and your joke is in poor taste, sir. Just recently we have pledged our unwavering support against Syria, and not just because they wouldn't cut us in on their backdoor oil-for-food sploits. You may have heard about the rioting in our Parisian suburbs recently. What you may not have heard is that if the riots don't stop soon, we are going to ask them to stop! If that's not standing up for ourselves, then I don't know what is.
*No I'm not.